This week, I have been working on converting all of the professional development materials that are currently listed under my own JDO account to a generic professional development account for the JDO Foundation. While this task sounds incredibly daunting, I was able to accomplish this task MUCH more easily thanks to some great tools (and their collaborative features :) Below are some ways I saved time in completing this transfer.

A great deal of my materials (including end-of-module surveys) were created using Google Drive. This meant I could do one of two things - simply share the document OR make a copy after sharing the document. For many of the surveys, I created new, clean versions and just updated the link within the online Canvas course. While this took some time, I didn't have to completely re-create a single document.

Through Canvas, I was able to add the generic account as a teacher to all of my existing courses. From there, I was able to copy all existing course content to create a "master course" of all of our PD materials that is linked to the generic account. The copying process REALLY easy - just go into settings and copy the course. You can even pick and choose what content to copy. I then edited the master course materials and changed all links with my email. I also replaced any tools that were uniquely tied to my account with new versions created with the generic account (luckily this was also relatively easy).

I had created quite a few Blendspace experiences for my course and was really worried that I would have to re-create all of them. Through the collaborative feature, I was able to add the generic account as a collaborator. From the generic account, I could then make a new copy of the Blendspace experiences. Now that the generic account had its own copy of the materials, I didn't have to worry about any ties to my own account.

I ended up adding my generic account as a collaborator to all of the important Padlets I had created for the online course. Padlets are ways that I curate resources easily, especially by using the Chrome Extension. By setting the permissions to the highest setting, the Padlets loaded perfectly in the Chrome extension that I had installed for the generic account. Which brings me to my last tool.

I LOVE CHROME!!! If you've never used Chrome, you can check out a previous post on One Browser to Rule Them All. Anyway, I was able to create a Chrome profile for the generic account and install any extensions necessary to work on professional development materials, along with all necessary bookmarks (in the case that I am not the person checking the materials any more). This also made it super easy to switch between all of my accounts without needing to log in and log out all of the time. It also made it super easy to make any new accounts, since I just used the Google + sign-up option for all new accounts. Seriously, if you've never used Chrome you should check it out.

If you are interested in learning more about the professional development offered through the JDO Foundation, or about the foundation's mission, please visit jdofoundation.org.

How do you save time using collaborative tools? Please share in the comments below!